High Flying Oil Mogul, Julius Rone’s Paths Drip with Abundance

For obvious reasons, the mere mention of his name will bring good memories of his impact to the mind of anyone who is very conversant with Nigeria’s business climate, particularly anyone that understands the nation’s oil and gas industry, where Julius Rone, holds sway.

As a top player in the oil and gas business, Rone’s paths have been laced with more roses than thorns. Those that say money making is an art and that Rone is a maestro in the field may be right, after all.

Rone, famously called the King of Gas, is a corporate guy of no mean repute; he rubs shoulders with other high net-worth businessmen around the world. Unknown to many, he still recognises that only God is the unseen hand behind his success story; and he submits absolutely to His will.

It seems one of his oft-recited prayers in the Bible is Psalms 65 verse 11 which says: “You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance.”

On several nights, he had kept vigil in deep communion with his Creator, asking Him to grant and fulfill his heart’s desire. Mercifully, his prayer has been granted, considering that he has enjoyed abundant blessings in the outgoing year.

The Managing Director of  UTM Offshores, in October, received the award of the Order of the federal government, OFR. This is in recognition of his worthy deed, love and contribution to the economic development of Nigeria.

While he was still basking in the euphoria of the honour, the high-flying businessman signed a multibillion-dollar partnership with KBR, JGC Corporation and Technip Energies to design Nigeria’s first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility. The deal was signed for the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) of UTM’s natural gas project.

This came nearly a year after UTM inked a memorandum of understanding with Afreximbank worth $2 billion, in order to create an opportunity to support a future final investment decision on the FLNG project.

With the  FEED contract, UTM  moved the FLNG project from the fundraising stage to the implementation phase and continued working with NNPC Limited and ExxonMobil to expedite the development, exploitation, and monetisation of stranded gas resources.

The project’s completion will ensure energy security, access to energy, and clean cooking gas in Nigeria, the region, and beyond, as Europe seeks alternative gas suppliers as the bloc diversifies energy sources away from Russia due to the Ukraine conflict.

With the contract, the development of the FLNG facility in block OML 204 offshore Nigeria kicked off, enabling the exploitation of stranded gas resources sustainably while contributing to the Nigerian government’s agenda of reducing flaring and optimising environmental sustainability in energy developments. 

His armour against failure is ceaseless prayers. Little wonder he never jokes with prayers in all he does.